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Fast Company magazine has named Telltale Games the most innovative company in the industry, ahead of huge companies like Sony, King and Tencent.

Telltale Games was praised for finally solving the problem of episodic gaming as both an artistic and a commercial endeavour - something that the industry has, "struggled [with] for years."

"The rigors of producing bite-size game chapters in quick succession has proven impossible for most. Telltale, meanwhile, has cracked the code. In 2012, its five-episode The Walking Dead, based on the epic comic book series, sold 17 million copies."

The rest of the list included a host of large companies - specifically Sony, GungHo Online Entertainment, Supercell, King and Tencent - but it wasn't entirely defined by big business.

QuizUp developer Plain Vanilla Games was ranked third, for example, while Capy Games (Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP), Failbetter Games (StoryNexus) and Bluepoint Games (Metal Gear Solid 2 and Shadow of the Colossus HD remakes) occupied the sixth, ninth and tenth places respectively.

It's a good thing no one else has been doing episodic gaming very well (I mean, except for Valve - Half Life, Sega -Shining Force... hell, there was even an episodic Wing Commander back in the day...).

I really don't see how Telltale is being particularly innovative here. Television and movies have been doing episodes for decades. This is basically the decision to break up your games into smaller chunks. Even sequels are essentially episodes - series' like Mass Effect which let you use your save data from previous games to continue your specific character story! Honestly, of that list, I think Capy Games should have gotten the nod.

@Tim: Aren't those semantics, though? The price for "The most creative people working at a company that makes consistently great games" would probably not fit on the actual award trophy. ;)

Bonus thought: Contrary to film making, where people are identified as the movers and shakers (even if they aren't, of course), game developers still have the "put the spotlight away from me, it's the team" mentality that prohibits similar recognition. And while we know that it's NOT just one person making a film or a game great, the person is making decisions that influence the film's/game's development - design by committee hasn't always been that successful.

@Steve: Don't forget the Sin Episodes. Games that take longer than two months to follow the previous ones aren't really episodes though. Star Wars isn't episodic film making either, despite the "Episode" in the title. ;)

I'd give Telltale an award just for getting me to play(and like) a point and click style adventure game. I probably wouldn't have done so otherwise, although the Walking Dead license also helped. I also don't understand how the PS4 earned Sony a spot on the list. The PS4 doesn't really innovate in any way. Where as the PS2 and PS3 added new formats for gaming based on the latest media(dvds and blurays) the PS4 isn't doing that or much else new outside of the share button. It's super powerful and their latest system but not very innovative in my opinion.